Edge finishing machine



Nov, 8, 1932. J. B. COFFEY EDGE FINISHING MACHINE Filed Nov, 15, 1951 Patented Nov. 8, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOHN B. COFFEY, 013 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY EDGE FINISHING MACHINE Application filed November 13, 1931.

This invention relates to machines for finishing the edges of sheet material and is herein illustrated as embodied in a machine for applying an intense heat to the flesh side of a leather shoe part whereby that side is shrunk and the unshrunken grain side is curled toward the shrunken side, a machine of this general type being shown in United States Letters Patent No. 1,599,518, granted September 14, 1926 upon an application filed in the name of Joseph Fossa.

Machines of this type comprise a small tool commonly consisting of a U-shaped metallic member of small cross-section, the upstanding legs of which are fastened respectively to the lower ends of two electric terminals of comparatively large cross-section; and a comparatively heavy current of electricity is passed through the slender tool to raise its operative portion to a temperature in the neighborhood of 2000 F. Inasmuch as the tool must be removed and replaced more or less frequently, the legs of the tool are detachably fastened to the terminals by means of clamps provided with screws.

Hitherto the terminals have commonly been made of brass, the clamps and screws of steel, and the tool of a heat-resistant alloy, such as one consisting in whole or in greater part of nickel and chromium. Commercial alloys of this general type such as nichrome and chromel and commonly known as nickel chromium alloys are manufactured according to various different formulas and may contain other metals such as iron and manganese. For the purpose of this disclosure, the term nickel chromium alloy will be used to designate an alloy composed in whole or in greater part of nickel and chromium with or without a small amount of other metals.

In the use of a structure comprising a tool of nickel-chromium alloy, terminals of brass and clamps and screws of steel, it happens sometimes that the legs of the tool stick in their sockets which are formed partly in the steel clamps and partly in the brass terminals, and more frequently that the steel screws stick in the threaded holes formed in the brass terminals. In the case of the threaded holes a considerable amount of cor- Serial No. 574,828.

rosion is usually found to have taken place, and some of the brass thread breaks OE and adheres to the screws when they are removed. The cause of this corrosion is somewhat obscure but may be due to thermo-electric effects resulting from the flow of current through hot junctions of dissimilar metals; or again both the sticking and the corrosion may be due to small arcs caused by the different degrees of expansion of the dissimilar metalsunder intense heat.

According to one feature of the present invention, the tool, the terminals and the clamping means are all made of the same heat-resistant alloy. In the illustrated construction this alloy consists of 80 parts nickel and 20 parts chromium. By thus replacing the old members, which were made of dissimilar metallic substances such as brass and steel, by members all having the same composition, the objectionable sticking together and corrosion of parts referred to above is obviated. It is, of course, necessary in machines of this kind to connect the terminals to the usual copper conductors, and inasmuch as it is diflicult to make a good joint between a nickel-chromium alloy and copper, the terminals are each butt-welded to one of the ends of two steel rods or connectors, the other ends of these rods or connectors being soldered preferably by silver solder to the usual and its clamp. It is thus possible to use tools of two different lengths.

These and other features of the invention including certain details of construction and combinations of parts will be described as embodied in an illustrated machine and pointed out in the appended claims Referring now to the accompanying draws,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a machine in whic the present invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the tool, the termlnals, and the carrier in which the terminals are mounted; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective of the same parts which are shown in Fig. 2.

The machine is similar to the machine of the patent referred to above and will therefore be but briefly described. The leather is fed, grain side down, over a table 5 with its edge slightly bent up by a plow or turning post 7 so that the extreme margin along the edge is engaged by the shrinking tool 9. The leather iece is fed intermittently by four-motion eed members, one of which is shown at 11; and the edge of the leather, after it has been shrunk and curled by the action of the shrinking tool, is operated upon by an oscillating hammer 13. A presser roll 15 holds the leather down upon the table and operates an indicator 17 which registers the linear extent of the leather pieces fed through the machine. The -shrinking .tool is of a general U-shape, with the base of the tool engaging the leather and the upstanding legs of the tool fastened to the lower ends of terminals 19, 21 the upper ends of which are connected respectively in a manner 7 presently to be described to insulated copper leads 23, 25'. The terminals are carried at the outer end of an overhangin arm 24 which is pivotally mounted at its rlght-hand end at a point, not shown, so that the arm may be swung up when it is desired to remove and replace a tool. A stop-screw 25 determines adjustably the o rative position of the. arm and the tool a vs the table. As thus far described the construction is or may be substantially like that of the patented machine, and reference is made to the patentfor a detailed description.

There is formed, partly in the lower portlon of the terminal 21 and partly ina clamp 27, a socket to receive one of the upstanding legs of the tool 9, screws 29 being threaded through the terminal 21 and engaging one side of one leg of the tool. The other leg of the tool is received in a similar socket formed artly in the terminal 19 and partly in the 0 amp 31, screws 33 being threaded through holes one wall of the clamp and abutting with their inner ends against one side of the other-leg'of the tool. The tool shown has a comparatively long work-engaging rtion. It is desirable at times to use a s orter tool the upstanding legs of which are a shorter distance apart.

In order to provide for use of a shorter tool, there is an extra socket 34 formed partly in the terminal 19 and partly in the clamp 31, to receive'one leg of a shorter When a shorter tool'having one leg in this soclret is used, the screws 33 bear against the slde .of the terminal 19 and draw the clamp to receive the conical ends of alined bearing screws, one of which is shown at 39, said screws being carried by spaced arms at the outer end of the overhanging arm 24. The carrier is held in the angular position shown by a tension spring 41, connected at one end to the carrier and at the other to the arm, and a stop-screw 43 threaded through a lug on the carrier and engaging a lug on the arm. By turning the screw, the angular position of the carrier about the common axis of the bearing screws 39 may be varied to vary the position of the tool 9 with respect to the turning post 7.

The terminal 19 of nickel-chromium alloy is welded at a locality indicated by the line 45 (Fig. 2) to the lower end of the bent steel rod or conductor 19, the other end of which is soldered to the copper conductor 23; and

the terminal 21, also of nickel-chromium alloy, is welded at 47 to one end of the bent steel rod 21', the other end of which is soldered to the copper conductor 25. The terminals and the upright portion of the rods 19', 21 are clamped to the carrier 35 by a bar 49 and screws 51; and the horizontal portion of the rods 19, 21' are clamped to the carrier 35 by a bar 53 and screws, one of which is shown at 55 in Fig. 1, suitable tubes or sleeves 57, 59 of non-conducting material being provided to insulate the terminals and conductors from the steel carrier 35. In order to avoid the objectionable corrosion and sticking together of certain parts which, as has been explained, has frequently occurred formerly, the terminals 19, 21, the tool 9, the clamps 27, 31 and the screws 29 33 are all made of an alloy of nickel and chromium. It is desirable to make these parts all of the same alloy, and an alloy consisting of parts nickel and 20 parts chromium has been found to be most satisfactory.

Referring to Fig. 2, the leather is fed throu h the machine from right to left as viewe in that figure, and the base of the U-shaped tool is inclined slightly downward from right to left so as to engage the leather firmly at all points as the leather is progressively shrunk. It is particularly desirable that the left-hand end of the base of the U-shaped the machine, should be maintained uniformly at as high a temperature as is feasible irrespective of loss of heat by conduction and radiation. To this end a locality 61 adjacent to the junction of the base of the tool with the left-hand leg thereof is reduced in size by cutting away the tool somewhat at this locality. It is, of course, also desirable that the entire base or work-engaging part of the tool should be maintained hot and at the same time that this base should be capable of holding a considerable quantity of heat so as to furnish sufiicient heat to shrink the leather properly. Preferably, therefore, there is another locality of reduced cross-section at 63; and from one to the other of these two localities the cross-sectional area of the tool first increases and then decreases so that the base of the U-shaped tool is somewhat thicker at its middle portion than at its ends. With a construction in which either the locality 61 of reduced cross-sectional area or both this locality and the locality 63 are present, the heat may be concentrated where desired.

Although the invention has been set forth as embodied in a particular machine, it should be understood that the invention is not limited in the scope of its application to the particular machine which has been shown and described.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: 1. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hot shrinking tool, means for causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool, two electric terminals, and means for detachably fastening the ends of the tool respectively one to each terminal, the tool, the terminal and the fastening means being all composed of the same heat-resistant alloy.

2. .A machine of the class described having, in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hot shrinking tool, means for causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool, two electric terminals, and means for detachably fastening the ends of the tool respectively one to each terminal, the tool, the terminal and the fastening means being all composed of an alloy the greater part of which is nickel and chromium.

3. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hot shrinking tool, means for' causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool, two electric terminals, and means for detachably fastening the ends of the tool respectively one to each terminal, the tool, the terminal and the fastening means being all composed of the same alloy of nickel and chromium.

4. A machine of the class described having,

in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hot shrinking tool, means for causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool, two electric terminals, and means for detachably fastening the ends of the tool respectively one to each terminal, the tool, the terminal and the fastening means being all composed of an alloy of substantially 80 parts of nickel and 20 parts of chromium.

5. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hot shrinking tool, means for causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool two electric terminals, one having a socket to receive one end of a tool and the other having two spaced sockets in the appropriate one of which the other end of a tool may be received, and means for clamping the ends of tools in the sockets.

6. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hot shrinking tool, means for causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool, two electric terminals, one having a socket to receive one end of a tool and the other having two spaced sockets in the appropriate one of which the other end of atool may be received, and means for clamping the ends of tools in the sockets, the terminals, the tool and the clamping means being all composed of an alloy of nickel and chromium.

7 A machine of the class described having, in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hotshrinkingtool, means for causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool, a terminal having a socket therein to receive one end of a tool, a clamp encircling the terminal, a threaded hole extending through the terminal and opening into the socket, a clamping screw in the hole, a second terminal having two spaced sockets in either of which the other end of a tool may be received, a clamp encircling the second terminal, a threadedhole extending through a wall of the clamp and opening into one socket, and a clamping screw in the last-named hole.

8. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a support for a piece of leather, an intensely hot shrinking tool, means for causing the leather to be subjected along an edge thereof to the action of the tool, a terminal having a socket therein to receive one end of a tool, a clamp encircling the terminal, a threaded hole extending through the terminal and opening into the socket, a clamping screw in the hole, a second terminal having two spaced sockets in either of which the other end of a tool may be received, a clamp encircling the second terminal, a threaded hole extending through a wall of the clamp and opening into one socket, and a clamping screw in the last-named hole, the terminal-receiving opening in the last-named clamp being of a. greater dimension, considered in the direction of the axis of the screw than is the corresponding dimension of the terminal.

8, 9. A generally U-shaped shrinking tool for a machine of the class described, the tool hav ing a locality of reduced cross-section adjacent to the junction of one of the legs w1th the base of the U.

10 10. A generally U-shaped shrinking tool for a machine of the class described, the tool having two localities of reduced cross-section, one adjacent to the junction of one leg with the base of the U and the other adjacent to 18 the junction of the other leg with the base of the U.

11. A generally U-shaped shrinking tool for a machine of the class described, the base of the U being thicker at its middle portion 20 than at its ends.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

- J OHN B. COFFEY. 

